round & round we go

QT and I went to the Indycar race at Richmond Speedway. We bought the package that included (mediocre) food and a question and answer period with several of the drivers. Danica Patrick was one of the drivers,along with Dario Franchitti and Marco Andretti. I was surprised to find that Danica was cuter in person than on TV. She's also quite small, maybe five feet even. the race was only OK,but it was fun for QT and I to go out and do something out of the ordinary. It was a long day though. We drove down early that Saturday morning and hung out at the track all day awaiting the 8:00 P.M. start.We got aroom after the race and drove home the next morning. Several weeks later Dante brought me along as his guest for a "Marlboro Experience". We drove to Dover Downs Speedway for hot laps in a race car driven by a professional driver and several laps on a drift course set up in the infield. The entire afternoon was fantastic! Marlboro provided everything. We were suited up with a firesuit,helmet and fireproof gloves. They took a photo of us in our suits. They then took us out to the paddock area to await our turns in the racers. Ther were six to eight cars running the laps, so it moved along fairly quickly. while we were waiting, there was Gatorade, bottled water, fruit, and energy bars for us. The race laps were great. Surprising how hot it gets inthe car as soon as it slowed to come back in. We were then shuttled over to the drift course to do the drift cars (Mustangs). The drivers made sliding those cars around look awfully easy. After our group completed drifting, we were ushered into a tent and fed. The food was great! After the food, they gave all of us gifts! I received a Swiss Army watch, A hat, a copy of the picture taken, and we got to keep the race gloves. ALL FOR FREE.